


Inevitable

by kitkatt0430



Series: Closure [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Barry is incorrect - it was totally a date, Cisco is fairly willing to give that hug, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eobard Thawne spreads his wealth out to more than just Barry, Eobard Thawne | Harrison Wells - Freeform, Eobard Thawne's need for drama has out lived him in video format, Eobard may be dead but his presence lives on, Hartley Rathaway Needs a Hug, Hartley does not know how to socialize properly, Hartley is dramatic, I do not at all recommend buying an entire apartment building, In which I build a case for season 1 Hartley to join team flash, Iris and Eddie clearly have their hands full dealing with Barry's willful obliviousness, M/M, Past Hartley Rathaway/Eobard Thawne | Harrison Wells, Slow Build, Slow Burn, background Barry/Iris/Eddie, even if you can purchase it for the price of the land, fixing STAR Labs security, fixing up the building's exterior, he's trying okay?, ignores season 2, in which once again I decry the awfulness of the pipeline prison, making STAR Labs an actual place of scientific research again, there's really no excuse on the show for the bad security
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24077848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt0430/pseuds/kitkatt0430
Summary: There is, perhaps, a certain amount of inevitability in what brings them together.  They've always been drawn to one another, unable to resist the pull into one another's orbit.  They both have genius level intellects and opposing airs of misunderstood eccentricity and a love of learning for knowledge's sake.  And they both have a need to be the smartest person in the room, though of course Hartley's was always the more pronounced of the two.It made them rivals when all the ways they were too similar clashed.  Enemies when they let that rivalry take them too far.  Friends once they gave each other a chance to appreciate their differences.  And now...
Relationships: Cisco Ramon/Hartley Rathaway
Series: Closure [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737109
Comments: 5
Kudos: 62
Collections: Hartmon Bingo





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For Hartmon Bingo prompt O3 - Enemies to Friends to Lovers
> 
> The first part of this folds around the earlier story I wrote for the Bingo called "Closure" so you might want to check that one out first. I've connected it to this story as a series, also named "Closure", so it should be easy to find. Turned out I was interested in what happened next way too much.

Cisco stared at the blank screen for a long moment. Uncomprehending. But he did not reach out to the mouse in order to replay the video.

He needed a moment. To process.

 _Cisco_... the man had called him that in the video. Like a friend would. Like he had any right to...

Taking a slow, deep breath inward, Cisco made himself hold it for a few moments before, equally slowly, letting it back out.

Eobard Thawne was a manipulative fuck. Of course he spoke to Cisco in the video like they were still friends. Like their whole relationship wasn't built on lies. Because that was what Eobard Thawne did.

Getting up almost violently from his chair - it nearly flipped over but he righted in time - Cisco hunted around for some pen and paper before settling back down and pressing play again.

"Cisco," Thawne said, still wearing Harrison Wells' face. (How did he do that? How did he wake up every day and look his murder victim in the eye over the sink every morning? How did he...) "If you're watching this, then I'm gone. Hopefully back in my rightful time period in the future, but I can't ignore the possibility that it's because I'm dead.

"Fifteen years ago I had to rapidly change my plans when the Speed Force rejected me and the artificial Speed Force I'd created to augment my abilities as a speedster proved incapable of granting me the ability to time travel on my own. As you have probably discovered yourself, that is when I caused the car crash that killed Tess Morgan. Harrison Wells died as a result of the process I utilized to steal his identity. It's a rather fascinating piece of tech from my time that granted me the ability to over-write my DNA with his. I wish I could have brought you to the future with me. You would have loved it there.

"I told myself when I took Harrison Wells place that all I was doing was repairing the integrity of the timeline. What was important was keeping certain constants in place for myself and for the Flash and that in the end it didn't matter what extremes I had to reach for because... you'd all been dead for centuries from my point of view. But spending time with you, Caitlin, Barry... even Hartley... the time I spent with all of you was perhaps the most alive I've ever felt. Maybe that's what I'd truly been chasing the Flash for all those years over. A chance to... to feel this alive.

"In many ways... you showed me what it was like to have a son. And you probably don't want to hear this, but I'm proud of you. You constantly rise above and beyond expectations. And so I'm leaving you half of STAR Labs. I only ever used this place as an instrument of revenge. But I think that in your hands, it could become something that lasts far into the future.

"Even if it isn't STAR Labs anymore."

In the end Cisco's left with a notepad full of questions and no decisions save one.

Eobard Thawne left behind a myriad of problems. And Cisco was, first and foremost, a fixer. So it was time to start fixing.

* * *

In retrospect, starting off his 'fix it' spree by trying to track down Hartley Rathaway, alone, was probably a bad idea. Given that Cisco was now hobbling along on crutches with one foot in a boot due to a badly sprained ankle, Cisco was willing to admit it had not been among his better plans. But at least it was just a sprain and not broken and he didn't wind up concussed and Hartley had actually basically saved his life so there was that.

Barry had not been happy to have to carry Cisco out of that basement and even more unhappy when Cisco kept insisting that Hartley was not at fault for what happened. Which was completely true. Cisco fell through the floor of the building all on his own. Hartley hadn't shown up until later.

Unable to adequately explain why he'd gone to see Hartley, Cisco decided on a rather definitive change of subject. He showed Barry and Caitlin the video Dr. Wells' lawyers had sent him.

"I got one too," Barry admitted quietly. "Haven't watched it yet."

"Same here," Caitlin added in a small voice.

"I don't regret watching it, but maybe I shouldn't have watched it the first time alone," Cisco sighed, closing the video player program. "Anyway, the video automatically gave them - the lawyers - a notification I'd watched it and I'm supposed to come to their office on Monday. Listen to the will and sign some papers to receive my inheritance."

"Half of STAR Labs," Caitlin echoed.

"Yeah. Which means one, or both, of you have inherited the other half. And because Eowells was a manipulative asshole, we don't find out who gets what until the other two videos get watched." Cisco gave them both a pointed look. "STAR Labs started off as the dream of Tess Morgan and the real Harrison Wells. They don't deserve to have their entire legacy destroyed because their murderer stole it. And, quite frankly, I don't want to lose this place either. I want the chance to make something good out of it. I'd want that regardless of what that video said."

Barry sighed and nodded, disappearing for a moment before reappearing in nearly the same exact position he'd been standing in before. He handed Cisco a USB drive. "Alright. Then lets watch the rest together. No one deals with that man's last words alone anymore."

"Mine is in my office. Still in the envelope," Caitlin said, standing up and wiping at her eyes. "I'll just... I'll go grab it."

Cisco reached out and snagged her hand to give it a quick squeeze as she passed him. She squeezed back before letting go.

Once Caitlin was back, looking noticeably more composed than she had on leaving, they plugged in Barry's USB and brought up the video. Cisco hovered the mouse over the play button.

"Everyone ready?" he asked. When they nodded, Cisco clicked play.

Thawne's last ditch psychological attack on Barry is super obvious but Barry's the one who is going to have to find a way to beat his last words. But then on screen Thawne puts on his glasses, assumes his Wells persona... and confesses to the murder of Nora Allen.

And Cisco doesn't know if he's elated - Barry's dad can be exonerated now, it's wonderful news - or just exhausted and sad - because there goes the last of Dr. Wells' good name. The man who was murdered fifteen years ago will always be remembered as the perpetrator of his murderer's crimes.

It's not fair. But Cisco can learn to live with it.

"I've gotta... I've gotta show that to Joe," Barry says, reaching for the USB. Caitlin holds him back though, letting Cisco properly eject the USB from the computer instead of just yanking it from the slot.

"We watch Caitlin's video first," Cisco insisted, holding on to the drive.

Sheepishly, Barry settled. "Sorry, Caitlin. I... got a little excited."

"Trust me, I get it. It's what you've been searching for all these years, proof your dad is innocent. It's okay if you'd rather..." she trailed off when Barry hugged her.

"It can wait a little bit longer. Are you ready to watch what Wells left you?" Barry asked, pulling away. "We can take a break or something, go get coffee or watch cute cat videos..."

Caitlin snorted in amusement. "I'm fine. Let's get it over with."

"Caitlin," Thawne says, all smiles and... it'd be so easy to forget the monster hiding just beneath the surface. "Congratulations on your marriage to Ronnie. It hasn't actually happened yet, but I'm sure that by the time it does... I won't be someone you want attending anymore. I'm sorry that it took so much longer for the two of you to reach that moment than you'd planned, but... what happened with the accelerator was necessary. And your husband was always fated to become part of the hero FIRESTORM. I know the two of you will achieve great things together."

Cisco paused the video because Caitlin was sobbing in Barry's arms. "We don't have to finish..." he started to say, but Caitlin reached around him to tap the space bar.

"As you'll find out from my lawyers, I'll be leaving you some of my money, my house here in Central City, and my summer home in LA. It's a nice condo, though I can't say I've actually been there much in the last few years. Perhaps, if the two of you haven't gone on your honeymoon yet, it would make a good destination spot for you."

"He didn't know," Caitlin said, when she calmed enough to speak again. "He didn't know Ronnie would die."

"Seems like what he thought he knew outstripped what he actually knew a great deal of the time," Cisco muttered darkly.

Barry snorted in amusement and a watery smile attempted to make its way onto Caitlin's face.

"So I guess on Monday we'll all find out who gets the other half of STAR Labs," Cisco continued, setting aside Caitlin's USB, rather certain she wouldn't want it back. Certainly she made no move to take it from the table.

"He probably left it to you, Barry. Part of his weird gaslighting routine," Caitlin guessed. "I mean, who else would he have left it to?"

Cisco closed his eyes for a moment. In his final message to Cisco, Wells had said, _"but spending time with you, Caitlin, Barry... even Hartley..."_ So there was, after all, one other person Thawne might've left the other half of STAR Labs to.

Probably best not to bring that up right now, though.

* * *

Cisco really hadn't expected to run into Hartley again so soon after the whole 'falling through the floor of an abandoned building' incident. So if he was being honest, asking Hartley to get him a brownie while at the counter - and offering the money to pay for both their snacks - had also been a way for him to sort of center himself. Remind himself that he had a plan for how to explain the story of Eobard Thawne the ultimate identity thief and that, perhaps, telling Hartley in the middle of a coffee shop wasn't the best idea.

It wasn't exactly an easy story and Hartley Rathaway was not the sort of person who liked emotional vulnerability on a good day. And certainly not in front of a crowd.

"How bad is it?" Hartley asked, sitting down with Cisco's brownie and a white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie for himself. "On a scale of one to 'I'm going to want to resurrect the bastard in order to murder him myself multiple times'?"

"The necromancy basically covers it," Cisco admitted. "Maybe it'd be better if we discussed this somewhere else. There's a park not far from here or... my apartment is walking distance, even with my boot and crutches." Somewhere Hartley'd only have an audience of one if he lost it and started crying or swearing in multiple languages or whatever.

"If..." Hartley halted. Took a bite of his cookie and a drink from his latte. "If you really don't mind me being in your space, then I'd rather your apartment. But the park is fine as long as we've got enough distance from other people. Because... time travel? Really?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Really."

"Yeah, I'd rather not have an onlookers giving me judgmental looks if I start swearing at any point during your explanation." Hartley wrapped up his cookie and then said, "I can carry some things for you while we walk."

So Cisco let him take his brownie and coffee as they got up and headed outside. "My apartment's this way." Hartley looked like he wanted to say something - maybe reiterate that the park was fine - but he stayed quiet and followed Cisco two blocks down and up an elevator to apartment unit 304, a roomy one bedroom apartment with a comfortable second hand couch for them to sit on.

Hartley's eyes lingered on Cisco's little craft corner with the sewing machine and knitting supplies in surprise, but he settled down on the couch without a single insulting comment and proceeded to put their drinks and snacks on the coffee table.

Cisco finally took a bite of his brownie. Delicious, if a bit too chewy. Jitters did better, but it wasn't close enough to Cisco's apartment for him to walk down there on his afternoon off work. It'd probably taste better dunked in milk, but it wasn't worth going to the kitchen for.

"So, time travel," Cisco finally said, breaking the awkward silence that had lingered since they left the coffee shop. "Eobard Thawne, otherwise known as the Reverse Flash, came to Central City in an entirely different timeline. At first because he idolized the Flash, or so he claimed. And yes, this is all relevant, so bear with me, okay?"

Hartley nodded and stayed quiet.

"Anyway, something went wrong and Thawne found out he was actually destined to be the Flash's greatest nemesis. And he took to the whole being evil thing like a duck to water. At some point he decided that the only way to defeat the Flash was to go back to when he was a kid, so... he traveled back in time to fifteen years ago. But the other timeline's version of the Flash followed him and they fought in the living room of Barry's childhood home, his mother caught at the center of this storm of light they created. When eleven year old Barry came down the stairs to investigate the loud noises in the middle of the night... the Reverse Flash tried to kill him, but his future self... alternate future self? Anyway... future Barry ran past Barry out of the house to safety.

"But in retaliation or petty frustration or whatever... the Reverse Flash murdered Nora Allen and framed her husband. Leaving Barry without his parents... and apparently no longer on track to becoming the Flash. Which had Eobard Thawne thinking he'd won right up until he realized his screwing with time had radically altered his own timeline and damaged his connection to the Speed Force. He couldn't time travel anymore as a result."

"Speedsters can time travel," Hartley interrupted. "Completely on their own?"

"Yeah. It's both cool and also probably a terrible idea. Eobard Thawne alone represents, like, a ridiculous number of cautionary tales as to why altering the timeline is the height of stupidity." Cisco grimaced and shook his head. "Apparently it's just a matter of running really fast and wishing really hard. But also I've been trying to work out the equations for it but I'm pretty sure I'm missing a lot of Speed Force related parameters right now because the math makes me want to scream. Math doesn't usually upset me like that."

"Can I... never mind." Hartley shook his head. "Forget I interrupted. Please continue."

Cisco bit his lip nervously because this was just... one of many parts of the story that were going to be particularly hard to explain. "This is where Dr. Wells comes in." He saw Hartley tense up. "He was, um... on vacation with his fiance. Dr. Tess Morgan. And there was the car accident. Except... Eobard Thawne caused the accident. So that he could murder Dr. Wells and steal his identity. It's... he..." Cisco reached for his coffee cup and had to stop. His hands were shaking.

"There was a video message he left me. His lawyers sent it after he died during the singularity. He... talked about the real Wells there some. But its... I left it at STAR Labs this morning." Cisco grabbed his coffee anyway. It had a top; his shaky hands weren't going to slosh his drink all over him. "He had some kind of device that... made him look like Dr. Wells. All he had to do was dispose of the... the body before..."

"Before the police got there," Hartley filled in, somewhat blankly, when Cisco hesitated. "That's... I'd say it all sounds unreal but meta-humans are a thing now. So I... we never knew Harrison Wells. We knew this... Eobard Thawne."

"That's right."

Hartley stood up and paced for a moment before just... staring out the window. Cisco's actually got a rather nice view of the city, but he's pretty sure Hartley isn't really paying attention to what he's looking at. Rathaway's hands open and close reflexively and there's an air of restrained energy to him.

Cisco should probably be uncomfortable with this. They haven't got the best history after all, especially considering it includes actual physical violence towards each other. But... he can't help but remember the way Hartley had sat with him, waiting for Barry to come get Cisco after he fell through the rotted floor. Hartley had put effort into helping Cisco move to a safer, more comfortable part of the basement, replacing Cisco's broken phone with a burner compatible with his sim card, and then waited with Cisco for the Flash - who'd taken Hartley into not so legal custody once already - with quiet patience. And Hartley didn't have his Piper gloves at the time either which would have meant that he couldn't fight back if Barry had gone back for him.

Cisco just can't... he can't see Hartley hurting him right now.

"Why them?"

It's not one of the questions Cisco was anticipating. "I think it's because they founded STAR Labs in the other timeline and, for whatever reason, he wanted to keep that consistent. They made the accelerator there and it probably really did cause an accident. Maybe their accelerator accident no longer affected Barry for some reason or... maybe there wasn't going to be an accident anymore. Or maybe he was just impatient. He said something about moving up the time table for creating the Flash."

"So then the reason he... he fired me was because what I found made me a threat to his plan to turn one person into a meta-human. I was just... collateral damage. As was everyone else whose lives were harmed by his vendetta." Hartley was still staring out the window.

"Pretty much. Yeah." Cisco held back the instinctive 'I'm sorry.' It'd sound too much like pity.

He wished he knew what was going on in the other man's head, though. Hartley and Dr. Wells had been close. There'd been times that Cisco had wondered if the two of them weren't just friends, but... sleeping together. Possibly romantically involved. But when Hartley supposedly quit STAR Labs overnight...

Cisco had thought that if they were involved there'd have been clear signs of relationship problems leading up to Rathaway splitting like that. Hartley was prone to melodrama and Dr. Wells was too, in his own way. So at the time, Cisco had assumed he'd been mistaken about the nature of their relationship after all.

Now the question came back. When Dr. Wells... when Eobard Thawne kicked Hartley Rathaway to the curb, had he been betraying a friend or a lover?

"I never mattered to him at all," Hartley said softly and Cisco rather doubted he'd meant to say that out loud. Then, louder, he said, "I was no better than him, though. Going after other people to hurt him back. Cisco... why would you let me know where you live, never mind actually let me inside your home?" He turned to stare at Cisco in confusion.

"No one Barry's fought has come closer to permanently harming him than you have," Cisco admitted quietly. "When you escaped, you could have turned around and pretty much ruined us with what we were doing at STAR Labs with the pipeline."

"You're not still..."

"No. They're all gone. Free actually." For all that it happened because Cold had, rather inevitably, betrayed them... Cisco couldn't regret their prisoners all gone free. Well, except for the one Cold had murdered to protect Barry. But that was a whole other can of worms that Cisco was not going into right now. "It was supposed to be temporary. A few days, a week tops. And then it wasn't. We all just let Dr. Wells keep talking us into... because it was easier than doing the right thing. So I can't exactly go throwing stones at you for what happened last year. But I can wonder why you disappeared. What happened to getting your revenge?"

"It wasn't worth who it was turning me into," Hartley admitted. "I never intended to try to kill the Flash. But I lost control on the bridge. And your friend's life wasn't the only one I endangered that night. I had a plan and the Flash's medical data was supposed to be the decoy. But what I was actually looking for was gone. Erased."

"The evidence that the accelerator accident happened by design," Cisco guessed.

"I lost control," Hartley repeated. "I guessed that Harrison was trying to create someone like Barry, if not him specifically. I wanted to... punish Harrison. Take his new toy away. But he wasn't a toy, he was a person and I..." Hartley shook his head. "Why am I even telling you this?"

Cisco kept quiet for a few minutes, giving Hartley a chance to regroup himself. Then, it was back to story time.

"He needed Barry not just to be a speedster, but one who was fast enough to time travel. Once Barry got fast enough, Wells would have been able to use Barry's running as a catalyst to trigger his own ability to time travel and return to the future. Whatever was left of his future anyway; pretty sure whatever he thought he was going home to wasn't really there anymore. Not the way he'd left it anyway. The singularity was the... stick, I guess. He'd programmed the accelerator to automatically turn on and create it; Ronnie and I couldn't stop it in time. And Eddie... Detective Eddie Thawne shot himself."

"Detective Thawne," Hartley echoed, turning sharply towards Cisco. "Eobard Thawne's ancestor, I take it?"

"Yeah. He survived... because his own meta abilities activated. Some sort of healing plasma. Looked kind of like blue fire. But the event was enough to destabilize Eobard Thawne's existence enough that he reverted back to his original appearance for a few moments before... it was like he shattered into nothing. But we still had the singularity to worry about." Cisco scrubbed a hand over his face. "Barry ran up there and was able to stabilize it; keep it from growing further. But he couldn't keep those speeds up forever and he couldn't get rid of it on his own. So FIRESTORM did. But it cost us Ronnie all over again."

"I'm sorry," Hartley said, sincerely. "It's gotta be shitty for Caitlin, loosing him twice like that." He shook his head and rejoined Cisco on the couch to finish his now cold latte in silence.

"They'd finally gotten married too. She's considering leaving STAR Labs; can't really blame her."

Hartley poked at his unfinished cookie for a few moments then leaned away from it and his empty to-go cup. "What about you? Going to start over somewhere else?"

"Wells apparently left half of STAR Labs to me. I'm supposed to go talk to his lawyers about it on Monday. Just guessing, but it's pretty likely the other half went to Barry. I have no idea what I'm going to do."

"Donate generously to charity?"

"Aside from that." Cisco shrugged. "I don't know the first thing about running a business... and I don't know what condition the Lab's finances are actually in because Wells was taking care of that. If I thought I was in over my head before, I am about to be officially drowning. And for all I know, STAR Labs is only a few months away from bankruptcy because Eobard Thawne didn't give a shit about anything that happened to the Lab once he reached the point of being able to go home. This could all be one last 'fuck you' from the Reverse Flash, saddling us with a sinking ship."

"I don't think so," Hartley said quietly. "Harrison was very... compartmentalized. Probably what let him get close to us as a friend and then turn around and hurt us so easily. He never understood why caring about someone or something should get in the way of achieving something important. He wouldn't have handed you a STAR Labs on the verge of bankruptcy, Cisco. You were his favorite."

Cisco rubs absently at his chest where he remembers Dr. Wells' hand vibrating it's way past skin and bone to... and he thinks about what Wells had said about Cisco showing him what it was like to have a son. But Cisco had gotten in the way of his vendetta against the Flash which meant Cisco had to die. "He told me... from his point of view, we'd been dead for centuries. As if that justified the awful things he did. None of it mattered. It was history to him. An easy lie to tell himself so he wouldn't have to admit he'd probably never really viewed other people as real compared to himself."

Hartley looked amused at that. "Is it really history if you're changing it? Thank you, Cisco. For telling me all this. You certainly had no obligation to after everything I did and you certainly didn't have to go so far out of your way for it," he added, eyeing the crutches off to the side. "I appreciate it."

"Do you have a phone number? In case I need to get in touch with you again?"

"Pen and paper?" Once Hartley had the requested items, he wrote down a number. "Send me a text later and I'll save your number."

Cisco figured he'd probably get listed in Hartley's contacts as 'Cisquito' but whatever. Contact info was progress. Next time they talked maybe Cisco could even sound out the possibility of helping Hartley get his reputation as a scientist back.

* * *

Monday afternoon at one o'clock, Cisco, Barry, and Caitlin filed into the law offices of O'Brien, Wade, and Tanning to hear the reading of Dr. Wells final will and testament. It was a very... surreal experience.

Cisco inherited half of STAR Labs and control of the STAR Labs patent portfolio which was apparently generating a ridiculous amount of money.

Caitlin received both of Dr. Wells personal properties and some of his money. There was a stipulation in there, however, that she should contact Hartley and allow him to retrieve certain items that belonged to him, along with any of Dr. Wells' personal items that held personal value to Hartley.

Barry received nearly the rest of Dr. Wells money, his personal investment portfolio, and one quarter of STAR Labs.

"To Hartley Rathaway, contingent upon his viewing of the video left for him in the event of my death, I leave the remaining one quarter ownership of STAR Labs, including the management of the STAR Labs investment portfolio and $50,000 from my personal savings account. Should Dr. Rathaway refuse his inheritance then it shall default back to Barry Allen." The lawyer who'd been reading the will then finished the concluding statement, basically just Dr. Wells reiterating the sound mind and body part from the beginning of the will. There was a moment of quiet and then he said, "I'm afraid we've been unable to contact Dr. Rathaway for providing the final video file."

"I know how to reach him," Cisco said, without hesitation, thinking of the number in his contacts list. "I have his phone number, anyway. Would it be alright if I delivered that to him?"

He ignored the sharp looks Caitlin and Barry sent his way. It turned out it was okay for Cisco to deliver the USB. For some reason that tiny little stick in his pocket felt way heavier than all the paperwork he carried out with him. And it was a lot of paperwork.

* * *

Hartley stared at the USB drive like he thought it might bite him.

"I'd rather not watch that. And I don't give shit about whatever I might've left at Harrison's house," he finally said. "But I also... don't want Caitlin finding some of..." he paused a beat. "I wrote some really awful poetry and I'd rather no one else read it. Certainly I don't want anything of Harrison's. Nothing of his has value to me anymore."

But it might have once. Cisco was fairly certain Hartley hadn't meant to imply that.

Hands shaking, Hartley actually picked up the USB drive and twisted it around in his fingers. "I don't want to give him another chance to get in my head. I don't want to hear his last words or chance I might..." he laughed, a broken little sound. "Too late I guess. He's dead and what I want still doesn't matter."

Quietly, Cisco pulled out his laptop from under the couch and unlocked it, handing it over to Hartley. "Do you want some privacy? I can go hangout in my bedroom until you're done."

"No." Hartley shook his head. "I shouldn't be alone for this or I might..." he didn't finish the thought. Just plugged in the USB and opened up the video.

"Hartley," and... wow. Cisco doesn't think he's ever heard that tone from Dr. Wells before. This... this is going to get very personal.

"I honestly... I don't know what to say. I thought I'd have something by the time I pressed record, but I just... I loved you. I don't expect you to believe that. But I did. I loved you. And I wish that it had been enough to stop me. That it wasn't shouldn't be taken as a reflection upon yourself. It was my failing, not yours." He said something then, in Latin, and Hartley flinched.

"I was broken long ago in a timeline that no longer exists. I wish I could blame what I've done on madness, but that's the easy way out. I can't say I didn't use our relationship to manipulate you because I no longer know where that line is. I crossed it so long ago that everything I do has some element of manipulation to it. Even this."

On the screen, Wells hesitated, seeming almost nervous. "If you call Dr. McGee, you might find you have a job waiting for you there. Offered to spite me, I have no doubt. There are others as well, but Mercury is where you're likely to be happiest. It seems that when my own reputation was called into question by the press conference I gave during your temporary stay in our pipeline; your reputation was at least somewhat restored as a result.

"That being said, I'm leaving you some funds and a quarter ownership of STAR Labs. By now you may have heard that I'm something of an identity thief. If not, I'm certain Cisco will answer your questions even though the two of you still cannot stand one another's presence. Suffice it to say that STAR Labs was meant to be someone else's legacy. And because I cannot give it back, I can only pass it forward. To Cisco, to Barry... and to you if you'll have it.

"I believe great things can still come from STAR Labs, but not by my hands. In truth I was only ever a fraud in this century. All my greatest achievements in the future from which I hailed did me no good in this time. My future knowledge meant every scientific breakthrough I made in this era came by stealing it from those who would have truly made them, five, ten fifteen years off from when I made them instead. Again, that will probably make more sense if you speak to Cisco.

"It's likely, if you're seeing this, that I'm dead. Or so far in the future that I might as well not exist. Had things been different, I would have liked to see you in my time." There was more Latin and more flinching on Hartley's part. "You and Cisco were both so bright, I'd have liked to see you catch up to and then surpass my peers from my time. But even were it possible, I know you wouldn't have come with me. After what I did to you, I deserve neither your company nor your forgiveness.

"I tried to balance the needs of STAR Labs against those I would name my heirs to achieve some sort of balance while giving you each the freedom to walk away. I have no doubt Caitlin and Ronnie will choose to leave, with or without the inheritance I've left Caitlin. Barry and Cisco will each stay. They need STAR Labs resources to continue their efforts as team Flash. Perhaps, when he's freed, Dr. Allen will take Caitlin's place as the team's doctor in caring for his son's injuries. Had I not needed to destroy the Flash so desperately, so personally... STAR Labs would have become ours, not just mine. And so I offer you now what I could not before. Even if you reject it, please know... you have always been my guy, Hartley. Always."

The screen went blank, not unlike Hartley's rather fixed expression.

"I need to hit something," he said, standing up and stalking out of Cisco's apartment.

Letting out a shuddering breath, Cisco leaned back on his couch. Eobard Thawne was such a bastard.

* * *

"He thought I would leave?!" Caitlin's voice went up an octave. "He... I..." she deflated. "I've been thinking of applying to Mercury Labs. But now I really want to spite him."

"Make the choices that make you happy and that you think you can live with," Cisco advised her. "I get the feeling that all of us doing our best to live well will lead to us each spiting him in the end."

"When did you get so wise?"

"Must have read it on a fortune cookie." Cisco grinned teasingly.

"My best friend, one smart cookie," Caitlin declared and then hugged him. Cisco buried himself in her arms and, for a short while anyway, all was right with the world.


	2. Chapter 2

"Do you think Hartley will accept his quarter ownership of STAR Labs?" Barry asks. "Also, can I just say, I'm kind of glad you got the most control over the Lab? If he'd given it all to me, I probably wouldn't think to use it for anything but Flash stuff and I like being a CSI too much to give it the attention it needs. And I wouldn't trust Hartley to have our best interests in mind. But you're probably the most kind-hearted person I know and you love STAR Labs."

Cisco blushes. "That's... um... thanks?" He has no idea, though, if Hartley will accept his partial ownership of STAR Labs or not. He was so pissed off when he left the apartment and hasn't spoken to Cisco since. For Hartley's sake, Cisco hasn't mentioned that Harrison... Eobard confessed his love for Hartley. It's not really any of their business.

So he changes the subject. "We really need to figure out what STAR Labs finances looks like. I know Dr. Wells was contracting the book keeping out to a third party and it'd be a good idea to stick with them for now, but... we need to know what kind of excuses he was making for our Flash related expenses so that we don't start looking suspicious for... well, for telling them a completely different lie than he was."

Barry grimaced. "Yeah. You're right. We'll need to make an appointment with them to go over the books. I took a personal finance class in college, though, and it nearly sent me to sleep."

"That's still more lessons in personal finances than I learned," Cisco admitted ruefully. "My high school gave us some booklets on the subject, but I think the only time we really had any 'applied lessons' on the subject was in my elementary school when we did our class trip to 'Enterprise City' and had assigned businesses to run for the day."

"Oh I remember that. My elementary did it too. And then we went again in Middle School. It was more fun the second time," Barry said. "We actually understood how it worked for the second go round and I got to run the jewelry store with Iris that time."

"Yeah, I got fined for walking on the 'grass' during my first break - which was just green carpet and I was totally against that stupid rule when we were making up the city laws in class - and later in the day couldn't afford this cool notebook set being sold at the general store," Cisco groaned. "I mean, I guess I could have if I'd known how to budget better, but we were sixth graders being handed fake money and I'd already bought some earrings for my mom's birthday and... something else. I don't remember what, but with all that plus the fine? I was, like, ten fake dollars short and it still bothers me."

Barry snickered, grinning widely for the first time in weeks. At least it's the first time that's Cisco's seen in a while. As such, Cisco considered the whole conversation a massive success.

"So, how's Eddie doing?" To Cisco's surprise, and amusement, Barry blushed. And then stammered a bit. Seemed like all that time he's spending with Iris and Eddie lately may be less third-wheel-y than expected.

* * *

Hartley does accept his inheritance from Thawne after all.

He shows up about a week after meeting Cisco to view Wells' USB video message, sitting in the Cortex, sitting in a rolling chair with his booted feet propped up on the desk, precariously close to the keyboard. It makes Cisco twitchy.

"The security here is abominable. If I'd known I could have just walked in and no one would notice for an hour, I wouldn't have bothered to blow out the windows on my parent's building." Hartley paused, then reconsidered. "Then again, that was really cathartic so maybe..."

"Hartley. Rathaway. For god's sake, get your feet away from the keyboard," Cisco hissed, paying attention to nothing else. It was a nice keyboard. Ergonomic. Cisco liked that damn keyboard.

Rolling his eyes, Hartley got his feet off the desk.

Cisco immediately felt better. Caitlin, quite clearly, did not.

"What are you doing here?" Caitlin demanded.

"Well, I do own about a fourth of the place. I've got every right to be here." He smirked at her. "And, as I was saying, the security here is awful. Not that it was ever all that good to begin with, but are the doors ever even locked now? What good are RFID scanners if no one uses their badges anymore? And why hasn't the part of the building that was damaged during the accelerator accident been repaired yet? Even if security get's fixed so that people can't just walk in the front door and straight to your little alter to the Flash you've got on display here, it's not exactly hard for someone to get inside where the walls are still gaping open to the elements."

Caitlin spluttered in outrage and dismay but Cisco just felt relieved. Because they do need better security, especially if STAR Labs is ever supposed to make something of itself again.

"He's got a point, Caitlin," were words that did not endear Cisco to Caitlin at all. "If our security were better maybe the janitor wouldn't have been able to walk out with my Cold Gun prototype and sell it to Captain Cold."

"You built that?" Hartley perked up, his slightly manic looking glee at tweaking Caitlin's nose - metaphorically - morphing into genuine interest.

"Yeah." Cisco's not proud of it, not after what Snart used it for, but he's not going to deny it either.

"From a scientific standpoint, that gun is a work of art," Hartley observed. "Rather impractical for Snart's use of it - he's a showman at heart and he'd make a spectacle out of throwing rocks at the Flash if he had to in order to get the attention he craves."

"Takes one to know one," Caitlin muttered, scowling unrepentantly at Hartley.

His smile turned a touch manic again. "Let's make sure no more janitors walk out with our tech again, shall we?"

"Then I guess we're all going to need new badges. Including Barry, Detectives West and Thawne, and Iris," Cisco said, giving Hartley a steady look in case the other man objected. He can't argue against a badge for Barry, who could just phase through the building anyway even if he weren't a partial owner entitled to full access to STAR Labs. But the rest... Hartley could object there. He'd get nowhere, not with Cisco and Barry's ownership of the building outweighing Hartley's, but...

"All Team Flash members, I suppose," Hartley sighed. "Whatever. Badges for everyone. But we're getting STAR Labs secure again."

"Fine," Caitlin responds tightly.

* * *

In reality step one is getting Hartley's work account reactivated, deactivating Dr. Wells work account, raising the clearance ratings on Hartley, Caitlin, and Cisco's accounts so they've all got the highest access allowed by the existing security system, and then issuing the three of them new badges. Then they have to figure out how to add new accounts and both Cisco and Hartley find themselves swearing at the human resource department's shitty software a few dozen times over before they finally figure out how to make new accounts.

By that point, Caitlin's already taken her new badge and returned to her office. Cisco has no idea if she's going to stay, but even if she doesn't that badge will always work for her. Always.

"I miss having an HR department," Hartley laments as they successfully print out a badge for Barry, whose picture comes from the STAR Labs CCTV footage.

"Yeah. Everyone basically either quit or got fired after the... well it wasn't an accident. The incident, then," Cisco told him. "It didn't happen all at once, but... by the time Barry woke up from his coma, it was down to Dr. Wells, Caitlin, me, our parking lot security guard, and a janitor."

"Who stole the Cold Gun."

"And the Heat Gun. That was mine too," Cisco admitted. "The janitor vanished afterwards, though, so he's either dead or living it up on a beach somewhere." Probably dead, knowing how Snart operated. "Wells hired a replacement who comes by on the weekends."

"We're gonna get to go on a hiring spree then," Hartley said, looking less than pleased. "I hate doing interviews. Either side of the hiring table."

"Maybe we can lure back someone who worked in HR here previously?" Cisco asked, half joking.

"It's a possibility. Someone who'd come back for a raise both monetarily and in position would be our best bet, but we'd need to reconfigure the security system first so that the cortex is the most inaccessible part of the building. Probably install a bunch more RFID readers all over the place to keep that section of the building compartmentalized. And the pipeline. Even if you hadn't turned it into a prison," and there is something clipped and angry sounding in Hartley's tone as he says the word 'prison', "it's not something any new employees should be allowed to poke into."

Cisco kind of has the feeling that Hartley's waiting to blow up over the pipeline when he's got a complete audience. And, surely enough, hen Barry arrives at lunch time, Hartley definitely wound up exploding.

"I promise to keep my nose out of the Flash business. You want to give someone clearance to the building because they're part your little entourage, whatever. I won't complain. But." Hartley's eyes narrow. "No more pipeline prison. I don't care if you think its an emergency, that Iron Heights can't handle whatever power, yada yada yada. I find out that you're keeping anyone down there for longer than forty-eight hours at the most and I will gleefully turn you into the authorities. I really don't give a fuck if that means I go to prison right along with you."

Barry moved to object, but Hartley just steamrolled right past him.

"You want to call yourself a hero? Fine. Then fucking well start acting like one. You can start by owning up to the fact that, legally speaking, every single person you kept in that pipeline was a person you were torturing. Forced isolation is considered a pretty nasty form of psychological torture these days. And you had no legal standing to incarcerate any of us. Not here any way. So find a better way of handling the metas who commit crimes from here on out. Because if you don't, then you're no better than the bad guys you fight."

There are red spots high on Barry's cheeks; Caitlin looks absolutely incandescent with rage, and probably shame, at having to be told off by Hartley of all people. Certainly Cisco's all flushed and angry too, but... what can they say? Hartley's right and objecting to being told they can't psychologically torture people any more would kind of make them monsters.

"We could donate the the time and equipment to upgrade a wing at Iron Heights to handle metas. The cells and one of the yards could be equipped with power dampeners." Cisco had floated the idea before, to Dr. Wells. No surprise in retrospect that Wells had said no.

"We donate to upgrade the holding cells at the precinct," Hartley countered. "Iron Heights we do for a discount. STAR Labs is totally dependent on patents, licensing agreements made prior to the accelerator incident, and stock options to remain afloat right now. This is one way to start bringing in a fresh revenue stream that the Lab is going to need to keep from running out of money a few years down the line."

"It's a good plan," Barry allowed, tense and angry. "You'll stay out of Flash business?"

"Yes." Hartley and Barry exchange silent glares for a long moment after that.

Then Barry nodded. "Sounds good to me. And I'll stay out of the way while you and Cisco get STAR Labs back in business."

Hartley nods curtly. "Caitlin, the biotech department is all yours. I'm sure you've no objections, Cisco?"

"Nope." Caitlin deserves to be head of that department, once it's an actual department again.

"We'll figure out our new salaries and budgets later." Hartley checked his watch. "I've got an apartment contract to look over, but I'll be back afterwards." Hesitantly, he asked, "Snow... when would be a good time for me to retrieve my things from Wells former residence?"

"We can do that after your lease signing today," Caitlin tells him, voice stiff.

As Hartley walked out, Cisco turned to Barry. "So, um, we're going to be working on getting building security back up to snuff. All the RFID readers are going to be coming back online soon. So, here's a badge for you. We'll need Joe and everyone else to come by later so we can have their pictures on their badges."

"Rathaway's idea?" Barry asks.

"Yeah, but its a good one. Right now pretty much anyone can get in. We need to repair the damage to the building itself too. It's probably been getting worse since the initial damage was done since it's been left alone for so long."

"I can do that. If you can get me the materials," Barry told him. "I've been repairing some of the buildings around Central lately, so I've had the practice in. Everything I've repaired so far has been up to code."

"Not that I want to advocate for you spending even more time not sleeping than you already are, but that's a really great idea. The last thing we want to worry about are contractors nosing around and finding your suit." That'd be a disaster and Cisco does not want to deal with it. At least he and Hartley should be able to install new RFID readers themselves.

"Are we really okay with Hartley just... taking over like this?" Caitlin demanded.

"I've got fifty percent ownership," Cisco reminded her. "If I think he's suggesting something bad for STAR Labs, I'll overrule him. But right now he's got a better idea of what STAR Labs needs than the rest of us do. I hate to say it, but... we kind need him."

"I trust you and Cisco to keep him in line and as long as he keeps to his promise to stay out of Flash business..." Barry shrugged. "I don't really see that we have a choice right now."

"Alright. I'll put up with him for now," Caitlin did not sounds happy at all to be saying that. "But if he goes off the rails again..."

"Then we'll find a legal way to toss him out on his ass," Barry promised. "He's right about the pipeline, though."

"Yeah..." Caitlin ducked her head, staring down at the floor. "I know."

* * *

The news that Hartley's working with them on STAR Labs related business goes over with Joe like a lead balloon. Cisco is very, very grateful that Hartley's still with Caitlin at Wells house because...

Rathaway may be an asshole but he really does not need to hear what Joe has to say about him.

"Look, I get it," Cisco finally snapped, butting into the argument Joe and Barry have been having where they've been basically arguing the same side at each other and badmouthing Hartley and Cisco's finding himself in the uncomfortable position of playing Hartley's advocate. "He hurt your son," he said to Joe. "But he's also got a point that we were all party to psychologically torturing people for the last year. We all fucked up. And none of us are in a position to be throwing stones at glass houses right now. Let's try not to be even bigger hypocrites than we already are, okay? So just lay off Rathaway; odds are you're rarely ever going to see him anyway."

They all should have known better, but both Joe and Barry worked in law enforcement. If anyone should have been shutting down the pro-pipeline bandwagon with a healthy dose of reality and ethics, it ought to have been these two. And thankfully that reminder, that they had no excuses and no room to cast judgement, shut both Barry and Joe down.

"Still don't like it," Joe grumbled, but it wasn't really in Joe to back down gracefully.

Not that Cisco cared, so long as Joe backed down. It wasn't his decision anyway.

Arguably it was Cisco's decision. And he wanted to give Hartley a second chance. Even if he had to drag everyone kicking and screaming back to the starting line to get it.

* * *

Cisco finds Hartley in his old lab the next morning. There are hand drawn sketches laid out on a table top and a laptop hooked up to a couple of monitors in one corner. It all looks rather hastily thrown together, like Hartley picked the room more for familiarity than functionality.

"What'cha working on?" Cisco asked.

"Branching out with your power inhibitor designs," Hartley said. "There's this girl at the building I've been... squatting in. Not really sure how old she is; younger than the twenty-two she's been claiming, though. Her powers activate at random in her sleep and I'd like to make her something that'll be easy to keep charged and give her peace of mind for sleeping through the night... but easily turned off if she needs to defend herself when she wakes up. Your cuffs make a good starting point, but those aren't finished yet and I'm not sticking her in something designed specifically for restraining criminals anyway."

Cisco swallowed hard because... homeless kids with meta powers. How did it never occur to him this was a possibility?

"What do you have so far?" Cisco walked over and started poking at the design plans Hartley's been working on.

There's a scribbled out necklace design with a hastily scrawled 'don't want her to strangle herself in her sleep' next to it. Two bracelets with a question mark on another page. Probably too much like the handcuffs design for Hartley's comfort.

"Does it have to be wearable?" Cisco asked, flicking to the third page, which had a nightlight concept but the math wouldn't hold up over the distance nor could the girl, whoever she was, turn it on and off easily enough even if the nightlight could be somehow made powerful enough to affect a meta from a distance. "Maybe something that attaches to the bed's headboard or can be clipped onto a mattress or sleeping bag... if she needs to have the on/off switch on her person there could be a control bracelet... or a smart watch maybe."

Hartley nodded. "I've been running into the same problem you have with the cuffs. They don't hold a charge long enough because the process of producing the dampening field takes too much energy. We'd need a decent sized phone battery to keep it up for a few hours, so it's better off plugged in. But then from an outlet, there's not enough oomph in a small device to blanket her powers unless she's sleeping on the floor right in front of it."

"So it'll need a long cord on it and the control mechanism is the only thing we'd need to worry about being wireless," Cisco opined.

They spend the rest of the morning working on the design and wind up with something more along the lines of dual clips - one at the head of the bed and one at the base. They'd both need to be plugged in, but a single trigger device would work to control both simultaneously.

It's probably the best working session Cisco's ever had with Hartley. They sniped at each other, sure, but it never got heated. Never got personal. Cisco can't help but feel proud at the idea that they've moved beyond the worst of their pettiness towards each other. But he also remembers Dr. Wells walking in on them working together in the past and his amusement at their bickering. The way he'd fanned the flames of their rivalry, egging them each on. He'd never thought of it that way before, but now it seems obvious.

"Penny for your thoughts," Hartley said, setting aside their project for later. They had other things to work on in the afternoon. Like deciding who from HR they were going to try to tempt back first.

"Barry volunteered to repair the broken parts of the building. If we can get the building materials, he's faster than any work crew and has memorized all the building codes for structural, electrical, and plumbing work." Better to bring that up than his actual thoughts concerning Dr. Wells.

Hartley hummed thoughtfully. "We really should have a building inspector come out first. Tell us what all needs to be fixed and what permits we might need from the city first. I'm sure Harrison had someone out at one point for insurance purposes, but it's only gotten worse since then. I think we're going to have to re-insure the building," he added grimacing.

Cisco had completely forgotten work permits were a thing. They'd need permits for any structural changes for certain. Whether they'd need further permits for the electrical and plumbing work depended entirely on what kind of work needed to be done.

"Being in charge sucks," Cisco decided.

"Definitely," Hartley agreed.

They exchanged hesitant smiles.

* * *

It becomes a routine with the two of them from there. In the mornings Cisco and Hartley work on the meta power inhibitor. In the afternoon, they work on everything else.

Hartley works on getting them a city inspection and the permits they need to start repairs, as well as the building materials Barry will need to make those repairs. Cisco installs new RFID readers and a few new doors too - with Barry's help - to separate the parts of the building dedicated to the Flash and the pipeline from the parts that will, hopefully, fill up with scientists once more. He starts looking into bio metrics based security too, though no decisions have been made on what the next step for building security will be yet. They sit down with Caitlin and determine which projects that were shut down before the accelerator blew should be scheduled to restart once they have the man power again. There are more than a few they determine aren't feasible and have too many ethical considerations for their comfort.

There are a few afternoons dedicated to installing the power dampeners at the CCPD, which Cisco does on his own. There were concerns that Hartley might be recognized as the Pied Piper - the police never officially connected Hartley to his alter ego but he wasn't exactly careful about concealing his identity either. Cisco would rather not push their luck and Hartley was in no rush to grace the cells they were supposed to be 'improving' as a guest rather than a technician.

Today, with the outer walls of STAR Labs completely whole for the first time in over a year and a half, would be their first interview.

Cathy Myers had formerly been part of the STAR Labs HR department. She'd left shortly before the accelerator incident due to a personality clash with another member of the department. There'd been no reports of harassment on either woman's part, but after Cathy left several others began to report difficulties working with the same woman she'd had problems with. It turned out Karen Fowler had a habit of taking credit for other people's work while doing very little herself. With Fowler gone and the promise of a pay raise and the chance to run the HR department herself, Cathy had been more than happy to be lured out for an interview to see if she was a good fit for STAR Labs' rebirth and change in leadership.

Cisco is waiting for her in the entry hall at eleven o'clock sharp with a visitor's pass for her. The RFID security has been officially active again for the last week and Cisco's rather proud of himself for getting even the secret nooks and crannies Eobard Thawne had built in for his Reverse Flash shenanigans covered. Barry and Caitlin are both impressed by how much thought he put into cordoning off which parts of the building. Hartley, of course, is as inscrutable as ever.

Cathy shakes Cisco's hand and grins at him. "So I hear you and Hartley inherited this behemoth and are trying to get it running again." She doesn't know about Barry; he's asked to stay more of a silent partner in all of this and Cisco and Hartley had their own reasons for agreeing to his request.

"That's right," Cisco said. "Dr. Wells had us doing some consult work for the CCPD. Trying to help make up for the accident, I guess. But that's not exactly going to keep STAR Labs going long term so that is where Hartley and I are trying to change things now. Re-start research and development and partner with companies like Palmer Tech. We're really hoping you're going to want to be a part of this." Cisco offered her what he hoped was a charming smile. "Honestly, this isn't going to be a traditional interview. We already know we want you for this job, Cathy. The question is..."

"Do I want the job?" She grinned. "Well, let's find out, shall we?"

* * *

Cathy Myers accepts the job and doesn't even try to haggle over the salary they offer her. Hartley's research, it seems, was right on the mark. She has to give two weeks notice at her current place of work and then she wants another two weeks before starting to take a vacation with her husband. They agree to her start date, get the contracts signed and filed, and then Cisco's looking forward to a slow afternoon for a change.

Hartley, however, has other plans.

"I want you to come with me when I set up the dampeners for Audra." Hartley looks nervous and it takes Cisco a moment to realize Audra must be the young homeless girl Hartley's been working so hard to help.

"Uh, sure. Okay. Will she be okay with me being there?"

"It'll be okay," Hartley insists, not exactly answering the question. But Hartley's the one who knows Audra, so... it's his call for now.

It's weird passing by the building where he'd fallen through the floor. He's pretty much all recovered at this point. His ankle isn't even in a boot anymore, though it still gets achy easily and he'll wrap it up when it does.

But they head into the building Hartley had been staying in. It's actually in fairly good condition inside, though Cisco wonders whether the electricity powering the lights is through an illegal tap or not. Idle curiosity rather than actual concern about the legality of the answer. Cisco gets some wary looks from the few people hanging around in the hall and stairwell, but Hartley gets smiles and welcoming nods so Cisco sticks close to him.

Audra is definitely not twenty-two. She's maybe seventeen by the look of her. But she's got a functional lock on the door which makes him marginally less uncomfortable that she's a teenager squatting in an apartment building that is officially condemned.

Cisco can't help but wonder how much of the building's improved condition is Hartley's doing.

"Someone is buying the building," Audra says when they walk inside, giving Hartley an accusing stare. "Everyone's worried we're gonna have to find somewhere else."

"That's not going to be a problem," Hartley tells her. "The person who has... is buying the building's contract has no intention of throwing anyone out."

Contract... Hartley had said contract that day, hadn't he? Apartment contract to look over... Caitlin was the one who'd called it a lease signing - assumed it was a lease signing - and Hartley just... hadn't corrected her.

"How much would this building cost?" Cisco asked curiously and Hartley suddenly looks like a deer in the headlights.

"It's condemned, can't be that much," Audra muttered. "We'll get kicked out or arrested for trespassing and everything you've been doing for us will be for nothing."

"Audra just... please calm down, okay?" Hartley patted the girl's shoulders awkwardly. "Can we just... talk about this inside?" As soon as the door closes, Hartley tells her, "I've already bought the building, Audra. So just, please, calm down. The power outage the other day was me getting the building swapped over to a legal source of electricity instead of just tapping the grid and hoping we don't get caught."

She stares at him. "Why... how..."

"I told you, I inherited a lot of money recently and have my old job back. I bought the building for the price of the land and land prices in this part of Central are ridiculously low. I didn't even have to get a loan." Which meant it had sold for under $50,000.

Homes sold as bank foreclosures often went as low as a few thousand depending on where in Central the house was located, but a lot big enough to hold a broken down apartment building would have still cost a good chunk of Hartley's inheritance. And the taxes on it...

"I didn't want to spread it around 'cause I didn't want anyone to think I'm gonna kick them out to renovate and gentrify the place. I bought the building so that no one can force us to leave. But... the place does need to get fixed up for the sake of everyone already living here and I don't know how I'm going to manage that without freaking everyone out."

Hartley could get Barry's help, but having the Flash running around fixing up the building wasn't exactly conducive to the whole 'don't freak out' vibe Hartley was trying to maintain. Something to talk to him about later, Cisco supposed.

"So, where do you want the power dampeners set up?" Cisco asked, defusing the situation. Temporarily anyway.

"This way." Audra has them hook up the dampeners to her bed. Well, she has Cisco do it while getting into a quiet argument with Hartley over him being a bleeding heart moron.

Hartley doesn't say another word as they leave the building. He won't even look at Cisco. They get into the STAR Labs van and Cisco honestly thinks the silence is going to last all the way back to the lab.

Even with Hartley owning the building now, it's probably still not legal for all those people to be living there. The building is still, technically, condemned. Though if Hartley were to hack city hall... and Cisco's not gonna speculate.

"Please don't ask. I have no idea what I'm doing," Hartley admitted quietly as Cisco put the van in gear.

"I haven't had lunch yet. And I know you haven't either. So... where do you want to go? I'm buying." Cisco smiled brightly and just... let it go for now.

* * *

"Audra reminds me of my little sister," is the most Hartley says about himself over the next week. Everything else is work related, for all that Cisco does try to change the subject a few times.

Cisco tries not to regret that the emitters are done now, because that means he no longer has a joint project to work on with Hartley in the mornings.

It's a weird week all around.


	3. Chapter 3

"Did you know Hartley owns the building next to the one where you fell through the basement?" Barry asked, just this side of demanding.

Cisco drank his coffee. "Yup. He bought it after accepting the inheritance from Dr. Wells. Why?"

Barry spluttered a bit over Cisco's nonchalant response. "He asked me to repair some structural issues with it, maybe fix up the unoccupied apartments."

"Probably so he can move the people living there already into the repaired apartments." Cisco gave Barry a long look. "Hartley's trying to figure out what being a good person means. If not for him, then for the other people living there, please give him a hand."

"It's not..."

"If the next words out of your mouth have to do with the legality of them living there in the first place, then I've got a few things to remind you about regarding vigilantism." Cisco smiled sweetly, enjoying the way Barry squirmed uncomfortably. "You help people by saving them. I think maybe Hartley's trying to help people by giving them the space they need to save themselves." Cisco isn't sure he's phrased that very well, but it's basically the truth. Hartley's footing the electrical and water bills for a number of people who otherwise couldn't afford those things because he cares too much. Audra had that much right.

The words may not be quite the ones Cisco wanted, but at least it gets Barry nodding along.

* * *

Cisco had not expected to see Audra again. He particularly did not expect to see her in Caitlin's office at STAR Labs.

Hartley's hovering off to the side, clearly panicking. So Cisco drags the other man down the hall, ignoring his protests because if something happens then Hartley will hear it and he's making people nervous.

"What happened?" Cisco asked, once they had enough distance from the room.

"Audra got food poisoning last night. I... she doesn't have health insurance. I called Snow for help."

"She looks like she's doing much better, then. Food poisoning sucks." Cisco rubbed Hartley's shoulder comfortingly. "How's the apartment complex remodel coming along?"

"Allen's been a big help," Hartley said, not bothering to ask how Cisco knows about it. "The structure is safe and the electrical has been fixed in a few places. Between the two of us the carpets been cleaned in nearly all the apartments and we're working on refurbishing all the appliances. He's also repainted all the walls, fixed broken tile..." he trailed off for a moment, then said, "I'm looking into getting Freespace to take it over as official half-way housing. There are a few other places they have but... it'll be better for everyone in the long run if an organization that actually knows what they're doing runs the place. And I'm pretty close to being out of money again, so..."

"Maybe next time you want to make a grand gesture for the people in your life you care about, aim for something slightly less expensive than buying an apartment building," Cisco offered, smiling in amusement when Hartley rolled his eyes. "Are you planning on moving out of there?"

"Yeah. If it becomes halfway housing based on whether someone has low or no income then I won't exactly qualify anymore." Hartley fidgeted uncomfortably.

"If you need a place to crash while looking for a new apartment, my couch is very comfortable," Cisco offered.

"Why are you..."

"We're friends, Hartley," Cisco interrupted firmly. "This is what I do for friends. I help on personal projects and treat them to lunch sometimes and offer my couch up when they need a place to stay. Sometimes I even make my friends smile and laugh when they especially need it."

And, behold, a smile tugged at Hartley's face. "Thank you."

"I'm also brutally honest when necessary." Cisco paused a beat. "You need to get some sleep, you look awful."

Hartley laughed. "Gee thanks." But he lets Cisco send him to a break room to go sleep on a couch anyway.

Cisco heads back to Caitlin's office. "I made him go sleep," he announces and then hands Caitlin a coffee cup, "and I come bearing caffeine."

"This is why you're my favorite," Caitlin declared, wrapping her hands around the styrofoam cup and cooing to her 'precious'.

"Sometimes her relationship with coffee disturbs me," Cisco muttered in an undertone to Audra. "So, you doing okay?"

"Hartley over-reacted." Audra grumbled, sipping on her bottle of Gatorade. "I'm not his sister."

"No. You're not. His sister is still in the clutches of his evil, queerphobic, ablest, classist, asshole parents. You, however, are, what, sixteen? Seventeen?" Definitely seventeen, the girl had a tell. "Seventeen and homeless and alone and Hartley has been there." Cisco steals a bottle of Gatorade for himself. Watches as understanding filters into Audra's eyes.

"I suppose it'd be a stupid question to ask if he had someone looking out for him," she muttered.

"He doesn't like to talk about it. And I try not to guess too much. Seems rude."

* * *

STAR Labs first hire after Cathy is Professor Stein. His wife practically foists her husband on them and then surreptitiously asks Barry if he can drop by and fix whatever it is that Stein did to the stairs.

Martin Stein, it seems, is very much not a handyman. Cisco's glad to have him, as is Hartley, and the professor basically gets his pick of projects and labs.

But they still have a lot of labs to fill and while they've started putting out feelers, the people of Central City are a touch gun shy about STAR Labs. Of the few resumes they have received, there are a few that Hartley discarded out of hand, four former STAR Labs employees whose interviews will probably consist more of salary haggling than actual interview questions, a handful of people from out of town looking to move to Central City for one reason or another, and a large number of college students trying to get a leg up on where they'll be working after winter graduation.

Neither Cisco nor Hartley mind hiring out of college, they both remember how eager to please and impressionably loyal they were to Dr. Wells for taking a chance on them so early in their careers. But they also remember thinking they knew a hell of a lot more than they did and having a number of colleagues with actual work experience to temper their enthusiasm with safety guidelines could only be a good thing.

If Cisco's being honest, he could probably still use some tempering himself. Which is why he finds himself blurting out at lunch with Hartley one day "I want to get my doctorate."

"That's the sort of investment we could put STAR Labs funds towards," Hartley agreed. "Probably a little trickier to justify than average since you own STAR Labs, but it's worth figuring out how much we can legally utilize for your continuing education. It'd help if you weren't the only one going for a post grad degree on STAR Labs dime. So if you'd be willing to wait until... next fall? We could probably entice a few people with a masters to hire on if we promised to help pay for their doctorates too..."

Cisco relaxed. "Yeah, I can wait. Need to get everything squared away at STAR Labs so that I can handle the stress of getting my degree and continuing to help run the place anyway, but... I just wanted you to know that'll be coming down the road. It's... I wanted to apply for the CCU post-grad program after the accelerator was successful, but instead everything turned into a mess and it got put on hold. I don't want it to turn into an indefinite on hold, though."

"You're gonna love it the first time someone calls you Dr. Ramon," Hartley told him, a fond smile on his face. "After I finished defending my thesis I think I got a little giddy every time I had a chance to correct someone that it was Dr. Rathaway for, like... months."

"So you think I'll be able to handle it all?" Cisco plucked at his napkin on the table, looking down. He'd been super stressed out the last year of his masters and he'd only been working part time as a paid intern during that time. Returning to school for a PhD while maintaining joint ownership of a lab that was more infamous than anything else was probably a recipe for disaster. But Hartley sounded so sure it made Cisco suddenly anxious. Like... this wasn't an idle dream anymore. It could be real.

Hartley placed his hand over Cisco's, stilling the nervous movement. Cisco looked up despite himself.

"I've made the mistake of underestimating you before, Cisco. Never again. Besides, we can always make Allen pull his weight as part owner of STAR Labs if you need to offload some responsibilities for the duration." Hartley squeezed Cisco's hand gently and then pulled away, leaving Cisco feeling inordinately flustered.

"Thank you."

* * *

"Thank you for your time, Dr. Zolomon," Cisco said, politely shaking the man's hand but already thinking 'no, nope, nuh-uh' and other variations there-upon. He's honestly not sure what is throwing up the red flags for him because Hunter Zolomon's resume is really quite good. Forensic scientist turned physicist with plenty of lab experience, but...

Maybe it's something to do with the way he flirted with Hartley. No. Strike that. No maybes about it.

Cisco did not like how he flirted with Hartley. How Hartley'd become uncomfortable but maintained a veneer of politeness, but not once did Zolomon get the memo. In fact he seemed... smug when Hartley began to show signs of not liking the attention. It had been a subtle thing at first and Cisco hadn't been quite sure what he'd been picking up on until right now, as Hartley nodded at Zolomon, but refused to shake his hand too. Hunter's smile widened, just a little.

"I'll show you out," Cisco offered. "See you in the Cortex afterwards?" he added to Hartley. Normally Hartley didn't go there anymore, but they'd been putting off a discussion regarding the pipeline for the last several weeks and the Cortex was still the control center for the accelerator. It'd also put Hartley behind the building's strongest levels of security which might make him feel a little better after the not so great interview.

Hunter looked disappointed. "I was hoping to ask you a few more questions, Hartley," the man said, giving Hartley an intense look.

"I prefer to be called Dr. Rathaway by my colleagues," Hartley responded shortly. "And I'm really quite busy. If you have further questions, you may email them to me and I'll get to them if I can find the time." It went unsaid, but heavily implied, that Hartley would not find the time.

"If you'll come with me," Cisco added, tone cold.

"Perhaps you could answer my questions, then," Zolomon turned to Cisco as he lead the way out the opposite door that Hartley was exiting.

"Ask your questions, but I give you no promises." Cisco's smile was plastered on at this point.

"Are there plans to re-attempt the accelerator experiment? Given the time that passed and the data collected on how it failed, I'm sure that subsequent attempts to power the accelerator would..."

"No," Cisco interrupted. "The accelerator is no longer functional." Cisco had made sure of that, with Barry's help, in the days immediately following the singularity event. "It will never be functional again. While we might repurpose the pipeline eventually, suffice it to say that STAR Labs will never re-attempt that experiment." If it did, it would be over Cisco's dead body.

Zolomon, at least, seemed to realize he'd finally pushed too far and the rest of the walk back to the main entry was silent. Cisco had Hunter leave the visitor's badge on the counter before sending him out the door. When he picked up the badge to go deactivate it, however...

The world was blue. It was like a bad signal on a TV, static filled images washing over Cisco's vision. Hunter talking to Caitlin, who was smiling. Lightning racing past a tree... a speedster, but not Barry; the colors were all wrong. The accelerator... something was wrong with the accelerator...

And then Cisco was stumbling against the counter, the badge clutched in his hand and absolutely certain that the sooner they ripped apart the pipeline to turn into something else, the better.

He made himself go through the process of deactivating the badge even though all he wanted was to run to Caitlin's office to check on her. He could tell her about Zolomon - warn her away from him - later. Cisco needed to calm himself because his powers... what Wells had said about his powers...

He's freaked out. Especially considering he just saw a speedster who wasn't Barry and the last time a speedster-not-Barry was around, that person was evil. And the accelerator... given Zolomon's interest in it, having that in his vision didn't seem like a coincidence.

And despite taking the time to deal with the badge and taking the long route to the elevators and the Cortex... Cisco's still visibly freaked out by the time he walks in to find Hartley and Caitlin arguing.

"Please stop," Cisco says and he hates how unsteady his voice sounds.

Caitlin doesn't hear him, but Hartley does.

"Cisco, what's wrong?" Hartley asks, immediately abandoning the argument to hurry over to Cisco. "Did Zolomon do something?"

"No. He was way too interested in the accelerator for my comfort, but no. He'd have probably tried something with you, but I don't think I was his type," Cisco responded dryly, feeling better at Hartley's touch on his arm.

"The interview didn't go well, I take it?" Caitlin asked, peering at Cisco rather worriedly herself.

"No," Cisco and Hartley chorused.

"He kept flirting with me, didn't seem to realize his advances were unwelcome," Hartley elaborated, having shared an amused look with Cisco.

"Oh he knew," Cisco muttered. "He liked making you uncomfortable. Bad vibes with that one," he added, mind wandering back to his vision. Bad vibes indeed. "I asked Hartley to meet me down here," he said to Caitlin. "I wanted us to discuss the pipeline. We've been putting it off for a while because whatever we do to it is going to be a big undertaking. But it's... it's dangerous as it is now and we need to stop ignoring the problem. So can we just... at least come up with a plan for it?"

Caitlin sighed and nodded. "I don't want to fix it. It... it took Ronnie from me twice. I don't want to give the accelerator a shot at someone else I care about."

Hartley nodded. "Even if we did try to fix it, there's no guarantee we'd catch everything Wells did to sabotage it for his ends. Or that someone else wouldn't come along and screw it up for us. I put so much work into it that I hate the idea of ripping it apart, but better that than risk flooding the city with dark energy again or causing another singularity."

"My thoughts exactly," Cisco concurred. "So that leaves the question of what we want to do with it. The pipeline has a handful of cells left in it." He shrugged when Hartley grimaced, not liking the idea of any of the prison cells remaining. Cisco and Barry had dismantled most of them, but...

There were good reasons to keep those cells. But they were also a temptation for abuse. It was a contentious subject even within Team Flash and Cisco really didn't want to argue with Hartley over it too.

"I was thinking we could turn it into a track of sorts," Hartley said. "I considered using it for power generation, we've got a good setup for it but... I really don't want us sitting on anything that could be conceivably made to explode at this point. Whereas converting into a track for Barry to use it would give him a chance to truly let loose and see how fast he can go while still in a controlled environment.

"While I'm sure the..." Hartley's lips twitched in a combination of amusement and disdain - and Cisco tried not to think about why he knew it was both - and he hesitated a moment before saying, "the cosmic treadmill has been extremely useful for tracking his stats and vitals, at some point Barry's top speed is going to outstrip what that treadmill is capable of reaching... assuming he hasn't surpassed it already."

"I've had to upgrade it twice to keep up with him already," Cisco admitted. He wondered if he could get Hartley to say 'cosmic treadmill' again.

"Having a... speed lab," Caitlin grinned at Cisco, who stuck his tongue out at her for stealing the naming privileges, "would be extremely useful. The treadmill -"

"Cosmic treadmill," Cisco muttered, getting an amused glance from Hartley for the correction.

"- would still have it's uses, but a speed lab would vastly improve the range of tests and training Barry could run." Caitlin looked pleased. "That's a wonderful idea, Hartley." She didn't even sound stilted as she complimented him.

Cisco felt something loosen in his chest. "So, let's pull up the schematics and make a priority list for dismantling the accelerator so it can't ever be run again no matter how someone might try to feed power into it. Then we can design the speed lab to take it's place."

* * *

"So if it wasn't anything Zolomon said or did that had you looking like you'd seen a ghost earlier," Hartley spoke up once Caitlin left the room to head home for the day, "then what was it that upset you?" He paused a beat, then added in a rush, "I get it if you'd rather discuss it with someone else. Like Barry..."

"Eh, Barry's finally got a date with Eddie and Iris. I'm not interrupting him for this," Cisco dismissed absently. "And I really, really don't want to talk to Caitlin about it yet because she shows her worry over friends with lab tests."

"Cisco..." Hartley's tone is a touch strangled. "Why would Caitlin want to run tests on you?"

"Because I... because I'm a meta." Cisco's voice shakes more than he expected. "Shit... I think that's the first time I've actually said it out loud. Barry and Caitlin have been letting me just... ignore it, since my powers haven't actually done anything since... since the first time they activated."

Hartley immediately reached out to squeeze Cisco's shoulder. "But your powers activated again today?"

"Yeah." Cisco grabbed for a red vine from his stash, suddenly needing something to mindlessly nom on.

"Is it... are you okay with telling me what your powers are?" Hartley asked gently.

"Visions. Um... the first time it was of a timeline that was over-written by Barry's accidental time travel. He saved the city from being destroyed by an artificial hurricane by stopping it from ever being created in the first place." And illegally incarcerating Mark Mardon in the pipeline, but Cisco's leaving out that part of the story for now. "But that's not the only thing that was undone that day. What actually happened in this timeline was that I went to my brother's birthday party, which I'd been desperately looking for an excuse to skip because Dante's kind of a dick, and afterwards when I went to a bar to unwind, Lisa Snart basically pulled a honey trap on me so her brother could force me to make him a new Cold Gun and a Heat Gun and a Gold Gun - don't ask, it's really pyrite - and give up the Flash's identity. Which... they'd also kidnapped Dante. Because why threaten me when they could threaten my brother? And it worked. They got their guns and Captain Cold knows Barry's identity because of me.

"The worst part was no one else was angry at me for it. Just me. Well... me and my brother, who now hates me even more now for getting his hands iced. He recovered, not that he doesn't complain about his arpeggios every damn time I talk to him now anyway. He's a pianist," Cisco elaborated when Hartley raised an eyebrow at the arpeggio comment. "Anyway, the day that got erased is actually worse. I was murdered that day... and I can remember it."

"Fuck. That's... fuck. Do you... want a hug? I feel like this is the kind of thing that requires a hug." Hartley looked and sounded about as distressed as Cisco felt.

So Cisco hugged him. Hartley was warm and firm and smelled really nice... Cisco couldn't really resist snuggling a little bit into the hug.

"What happened? Did Snart..." Hartley was rocking them back and forth slowly, gently running his fingers through Cisco's hair.

"No, it wasn't Snart. It was Dr. Wells. I skipped my brother's party to investigate why our trap for the Reverse Flash failed. Only to find out it didn't. Dr. Wells used pre-recorded holograms and trickery to make it seem like... like he was in two places at once. Standing in the trap as the Reverse Flash and sitting in his wheelchair as Dr. Wells. And for finding out his real secret he phased his hand into my chest and stopped my heart from beating. Said I was like a son to him and then he killed me..." Cisco could feel the tears on his face now and he just clung to Hartley. He hadn't spoken to anyone about this since the day he'd used the focusing device to tap into the vision outside of his nightmares.

Hartley was murmuring soothing words against Cisco's hair. Well, okay, so he was also muttering threats against Dr. Wells and how that asshole was never coming near Cisco again, but... that was all kind of soothing too.

"Sorry," Cisco muttered, finally pulling away. "I haven't really talked about any of this in months."

"It was traumatic," Hartley responded. "Pretty sure bottled up trauma always ends in tears at some point."

Cisco rubbed at his face. "Yeah, probably. Anyway, I was kind of hoping that'd be the only vision I had because how often do speedster's screw with the timeline? And I probably don't want the answer to that question. But anyway... I guess maybe now I also get visions of potential futures. Because... I'm not really sure what I was seeing, but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe if we can tear apart the accelerator so it's permanently non-operational, whatever it was will never happen at all." He sighed. "I was already anxious to have it pulled apart before that vision, but now..."

"What did you see?"

"Caitlin talking to Zolomon, but I don't think she knew who he was. There a speedster running past a tree, but they weren't Barry. I think the lightning trail was blue, but everything looks blue tinted in my visions, so that's not really... and the accelerator was activated again. Outputting dark energy into the city again. It wasn't the past because you were there trying to shut it down with me."

"Could it have been... I dunno, echoes from the timeline Harrison... Thawne erased when he murdered Barry's mother?"

"Maybe. I hope we don't find out."

"Yeah..."

"I'm pretty beat." Cisco stretched and then reached for his phone, planning on placing an order he could pick up on the way home. "I'm probably gonna fall asleep early tonight."

"Yeah... see you tomorrow..." Hartley hesitated for a moment, then added, "thanks for telling me about your powers. It's... you didn't have to, you know."

"You're my friend. I trust you... and I think I needed to talk about it." Cisco smiled wanly. "See you tomorrow." Then he headed out into the hallway towards his own office to retrieve his wallet and keys.

Had Cisco's hearing been as acute as Hartley's, he might have heard the other man's deep sigh as he muttered to himself, "Hartley, you're in trouble now."

* * *

There is something very cathartic about dismantling the particle injector module. Cisco is taking care of that personally, with Hartley's assistance... though Hartley'd probably insist Cisco was the assistant in this scenario.

They'd set Barry on removing the various modules - essentially high tech magnets, in layman's terms - scattered throughout the pipeline meant to accelerate and guide particles from the injector assembly. He'd probably finish well before Cisco and Hartley did, but they wanted to tackle the injector themselves.

With the guide modules gone, no one would be able to speed up a particle enough to cause trouble. With the injector assembly gone, there would be no particles in the line to worry about in the first place. A one-two punch to remove the danger that had been sleeping beneath them.

"So, how'd the date go?" Cisco asked over the comms - they were all wearing comms so that Barry could chat with them while he worked at super speed.

"Date? It wasn't a date." Barry practically squeaked out the words.

"Oh, really? So you just went through your closet a few dozen times before joining them at a fancy restaurant and staying the whole night at their place but it's not a date?" Caitlin chimed in from where she was monitoring the power to the pipeline so no one got fried. "Sounds like a date."

"I didn't go through my closet that many times," Barry objected.

"Which makes it sound like you went through it at least a few times, though," Hartley spoke up, exchanging a grin with Cisco. "Can't blame you, though. Iris seems nice and that Detective Eddie Thawne," Hartley gave a low whistle. "He can slap me in cuffs any day."

Cisco cracked up.

"Okay, fine, so I made sure to dress my best because I like them," Barry grumbled. "And it was a very nice restaurant. And I fell asleep on their couch afterwards watching movies..."

"I sense another 'and' in there," Caitlin pushed when Barry sort of trailed off.

"And I woke up long enough for them to convince me to just sleep in bed with them. 'Cause I was too tired to run back home and the couch wasn't as comfortable as the bed." Barry said it all in a rush, but it was regular human rush and not a speedster rush.

"So you slept with them," Hartley immediately pounced on that tidbit.

"But it wasn't a date," Cisco added, tone clearly conveying his sarcasm.

"No, of course not," Hartley agreed, equally sarcastic.

"I miss the days when you two didn't get along," Barry sighed.

"It's nice, isn't?" Caitlin asked quietly. "Waking up with the one... the ones you love."

"Cait..." Barry came to a stop, just barely visible from where Cisco and Hartley were working on the injector. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Just... you almost lost Eddie once already, Barry. Tell them how you feel. How spending time with them the way you did last night makes you feel. Don't waste time being afraid when it's better spent telling them both how much you love them." She paused a beat. "Well, that got heavy fast. Sorry."

"No, I think I needed to hear that." Barry started working again.

"I had another vision," Cisco blurted out. "I, uh, yesterday. I had another vision."

"Let's break for lunch. And then I'm scanning you," Caitlin declared.

Hartley snorted softly in amusement.

"What did you see?" Just like that Barry was sitting next to Cisco, who startled just a bit at the suddenness.

It was easier to relate the second time and Cisco explains as they head back to join Caitlin in the Cortex. "I'm hoping that pushing forward with decommissioning the accelerator means that whatever I saw will just be... blue tinted nonsense."

"Are you sure you want me around for this discussion?" Hartley asked when they entered to Cortex. "Seems kind of... Team Flash business." He twisted his hands together nervously. "I can always just see you all back in the pipeline after lunch."

Cisco's chest felt all tight at the very idea.

"Actually... I'd like your opinion on Zolomon. If you don't want to have lunch with us, that's fine. I can ask you later, but..." Barry sighed and took off his comms. "I don't mind if you sit in on Flash business. Honestly... having another point of view on what we do might help us make fewer mistakes along the way."

"You've grown on us," Caitlin added dryly, but she was giving Cisco a very significant look. She always was too observant for Cisco's own good.

* * *

"So, um... is that offer of staying on your couch still good?" Hartley asked one morning, about a week after they started the arduous task of dismantling the accelerator. "I've got an apartment lined up, but I can't move in until next week. The Freespace hand off on my... the building I'm staying in now is tomorrow afternoon. So I can't really stay there anymore."

"It's good," Cisco responded with a grin. "I like having you around." And maybe he's saying more with that than he intended too because Hartley blushes and licks his lips and Cisco's eyes can't help but flick downwards to follow the motion. Heat pools in Cisco's stomach.

"I'll bring my stuff over tonight, then. Do you mind if I tie up one of our vans with my furniture?" And it had to be deliberate phrasing with Hartley. Our vans. Not STAR Labs' vans.

Cisco's mouth goes utterly dry. He wants to bridge the distance between them with his lips. He's also not ready for the consequences of that action at all. Not yet, anyway. Soon maybe. Cisco sways just a little bit, lightheaded from the inability to rationalize away his desire as something else. He's done enough of that recently. Time to face facts.

Cisco Ramon is attracted to Hartley Rathaway. Very, very attracted.

"Yeah, that's fine," Cisco manages to say in a steady voice. "Do you want help getting it all moved?"

"Everyone else in the building has already offered," Hartley responds, a touch regretfully. "But... dinner afterwards? Maybe?"

"Yeah, sure. Sounds good." It's not a date. But it could tell Cisco whether or not, once Hartley's moved into his new place, a date would be something he could ask for.

* * *

There is, perhaps, a certain amount of inevitability in what brings them together. They've always been drawn to one another, unable to resist the pull into one another's orbit. They both have genius level intellects and opposing airs of misunderstood eccentricity and a love of learning for knowledge's sake. And they both have a need to be the smartest person in the room, though of course Hartley's was always the more pronounced of the two.

It made them rivals when all the ways they were too similar clashed. Enemies when they let that rivalry take them too far. Friends once they gave each other a chance to appreciate their differences. And now...

And now they're having dinner together; just some takeaway they had delivered from down the street while marathoning _Firefly_ and enjoying one last night of being temporary roommates before Hartley moves to his new studio apartment. But Cisco is barely paying attention to the show or the food; he keeps staring over at Hartley.

He's not the only one distracted, given the number of times Cisco's caught Hartley staring too.

"Okay, I've completely lost the plot," Hartley finally said, pausing the show. "Look, maybe I'm completely misreading things here, but... I... I would really like to kiss you. May I kiss you?"

"You aren't misreading anything," Cisco answered. "Also yes. Totally yes. Absolutely..." Cisco's rambling is mercifully cut off with Hartley's offered kiss.

"I really, really like you, Cisco. And I'd like to date you, if that's... if that's something you'd be interested in?"

Hartley whined as Cisco kissed him again, nibbling along Hartley's lower lip before pulling away. "I'm interested. Very interested..."

"You're such a dork," Hartley muttered, shutting him up with another kiss. When they're panting and breathless and pressing their foreheads together afterwards, Hartley adds, "I need us to take this slow, okay? I just... I've jumped too fast into my previous relationships and this is... you're too important. I want to get things right with you."

Cisco melts at hearing those words and tightens his grip on the front of Hartley's shirt just a little. "I'm good with slow. Just... we can do more kissing tonight, though, right? A little cuddling too? While we finish up _Firefly_?"

"Kissing and cuddling sound perfect," Hartley agreed. "And, uh, tomorrow once I'm moved in to my new place... we could maybe plan our first date?"

"It's a plan," Cisco agreed, tilting his head so he could start the kissing back up again.


End file.
